Film and Literature Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Film and Literature Comparison - Essay Example Brent Staples' "A Brother's Murder" first appeared in an edition of New York Time Magazine in 1986 in a column for personal essays called "About Me". Brent writes articles and editorials for the New York Times even at present and even now he deals with life in the streets. However, he is yet to find a solution to the questions he had raised and the other problems he had discussed in "A Brother's Murder".The various themes of the essay include diversity, multiculturalism, family, community, politics, but above all, it focuses on the individual-society interplay. The sense of place is a significant theme of the essay. We can locate more than one definition of place in this essay. We are informed in the fourth paragraph that Brent's brother, Blake, loved the very street which Brent shunned. Brent never found himself at home in the environment in which they grew up. It was Chester, Pa., a threatening, poverty-stricken, industrial slum southwest of Philadelphia. Therefore, he left his hometown after college to join the graduate school and became a journalist later on whereas Blake rejected a decent life and gave in to the violent life in the street. Blake was only 22 years old when he was murdered. Wearing a mask, the murderer fired six times at Blake and then fled in a car. The man who killed him was young too. He was only 24. Perhaps no one would believe that these two used to be the closest of friends. What is most shocking is the reason for the murder. In fact, it was one of the most unreasonable killings. The reason was as trivial as an argument over a girlfriend. One would like to know how a friend can so unnaturally kill another over such a trifling matter! This behavioral disorder is the gift of the society in which these two were brought up.